After an underwhelming first round of the NCAA Tournament, the SEC dominated in the Round of 32 with seven of its eight teams winning to advance to the Sweet 16.
It’s the first time in NCAA Tournament that seven teams from the same conference have made the Sweet 16. Two of them will face off on Friday night in Indianapolis when rivals Tennessee and Kentucky battle for a spot in the Elite Eight.
Meeting with the media following Kentucky’s Round of 32 win over Illinois, Wildcats’ guard Lamont Butler discussed how the SEC has prepared them for the NCAA Tournament while adding another note on their upcoming matchup with Tennessee.
“We’re just battle tested, throughout this whole conference,” Butler said. “Conference was a beast. We had a lot of good teams that we played, but we stayed resilient, stayed together. And it showed today. Everybody was playing with love and passion for one another, and we can’t focus about anything but the next game. We just have a lot of love.”
“And we’re going to win that game.”
There’s good reason for Butler to feel confident entering the Sweet 16 matchup. Kentucky won both meetings between the two teams in the regular season, knocking off the Vols 78-73 in Knoxville and 75-64 in Lexington.
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Kentucky earned the two rivalry wins in the regular season and did so largely without Butler. The Wildcats’ starting point guard missed the game in Knoxville due to injury and then suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of Kentucky’s win over Tennessee in Lexington.
Butler is the head of Kentucky’s defense and is a complete player. The San Diego State transfer averages 11.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game. Butler facing off against Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler will be one of the key matchups in the Sweet 16 contest.
Three-point shooting was a major difference in the regular season matchups between the two teams. Kentucky shot 24-for-48 (50%) from three-point range in the two meetings while Tennessee shot 14-of-63 (22%) from beyond the arc.
The Vols are looking for both teams to regress to the mean when they face off at Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday night in Indianapolis. Tipoff between Tennessee and Kentucky is set for 7:39 p.m. ET. Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas and Evan Washburn are on the call for both TBS and TruTV.
